Finally, I learn the Heavenly Steel Saber Technique's latter eighteen forms. Once I master this, the saber technique will be complete. The first eighteen forms were also a fierce and powerful saber technique.
With just that, I survived countless life-or-death crises. I tenaciously defeated opponents stronger than me. Just thinking about how great the latter eighteen forms would be, considering they cannot even be learned without an inner cultivation method, made my heart pound.
Even if Jeok Chu-yeong is a famous master in the dark paths, wouldn't I have a chance with this? I was so excited and expectant that I tossed and turned all night. Do Gwang-il arrived before the sun even rose the next morning.
“Did you eat breakfast?”
“I did. Are you ready?”
“Of course.”
Do Gwang-il drew his sword in the middle of the yard. Without even a sword stance, he slowly raised the sword and gently cut through the air. I held my breath and opened my eyes wide not to miss the movement of the sword, the upper and lower body, the footwork, or even a small hand gesture.
When unfolding a saber technique with a sword, it usually feels awkward and does not show proper power. I thought it might be different for a master like Do Gwang-il. It was certainly different.
Watching it, I found myself tilting my head in confusion. Is this a saber technique... Unlike the fierce and warlike first eighteen forms, the latter eighteen forms looked like a sword dance.
It completely deviated from the norm of cutting and stabbing saber techniques. Yet, it was not unfolding a sword technique either. He was swinging the sword, but the sword could not be seen.
It was not cutting anything, nor was it stabbing. Nothing that could be called a form was visible. It was just like flowing wind and floating clouds from fingertips to toes.
Do Gwang-il's sword, which stirred the early autumn morning air with movements I could not understand to the end, went into its scabbard.
"Did you see it well?"
“I saw it well, but... is this really a saber technique? It is too different from the first eighteen forms. Isn't it just a sword dance?”
As if he knew I would say that, Do Gwang-il stepped aside and gestured. "Try performing it yourself.” I did as I was told for now.
It was not a particularly difficult posture, but I was criticized as soon as I started. "The blade is too high. Straighten your upper body more.
Keep the distance between your feet generous...” Even while being meticulously corrected on my posture, I could not understand what this was at all.
“It is called the latter eighteen forms, but where are the eighteen forms?”
“Ask those Sword Sect bastards. Since they obtained the first eighteen forms here, they probably assumed there would be eighteen more and named it that way, but those who use sabers originally have a simple and ignorant way like butchers.”
I practiced the movements diligently while ignoring the slander of the insidious swordsman who knows nothing of the exhilaration of saber techniques. I spent time learning the latter eighteen forms and repeated them many times while paying attention to my posture. There was no inspiration.
If I moved sluggishly like this in actual combat, I would get stabbed and killed by a third-rate wandering swordsman. When I looked puzzled with a suspicious expression, Do Gwang-il spoke. "Try performing it while circulating the inner cultivation method.”
I slowly drew up my inner energy. After confirming the stable flow of inner energy extending to my limbs along the circulation path, I unfolded the latter eighteen forms. This time the feeling was different.
Every time I extended my arm, took a step, or moved my body, the inner energy smoothly kept pace. Assisting forms with inner energy was something I had repeated countless times over the past month. It was nothing new, but the aspect of the latter eighteen forms was completely different.
The inner energy did not increase the speed or power of the forms. Rather, it was the opposite. The forms were guiding the path where the inner energy extended.
Whether using a blade or fist, all the martial arts I had learned until now aimed to defeat or kill the opponent. It was a continuous struggle soaked in blood and a crossroads between life and death. The latter eighteen forms were not like that.
What touched the tip of the blade was not an unknown enemy whose flesh needed to be torn and breath cut off. It was merely a passage where inner energy from natural energy stayed and flowed. Inner energy could be contained anywhere like water and was not bound by anything.
The forms also resembled the inner energy, abandoning shape and flowing leisurely with the current. To express this in words. It was free yet boundless.
I finished the latter eighteen forms as if possessed, cutting the sky with the long blade.
Swoosh.
The scattered distracting thoughts gathered back into one. It was a lingering and ungraspable feeling.
“This... what on earth is it?”
“Do you understand now? The reason why you cannot learn the latter eighteen forms without the inner cultivation method.”
When I stood there with a blank face, Do Gwang-il frowned.
“It seems you are not convinced yet. Repeat it until you are. A supreme secret art cannot be achieved by words alone. If you do not realize it, your body has no choice but to suffer.”
Since the feeling was not bad, I unfolded the latter eighteen forms again without complaint. Do Gwang-il watched for a moment, then took off his shoes, went up to the wooden floor, and lit a fire in the brazier.
He boiled water to brew tea and admired the scenery of the mountain behind the house without even looking at my training. I stopped the sword when the sun tilted to the west and the sunset dyed the blade red. Even though they were not violent forms, I was extremely tired.
Upon checking my energy core, I had consumed about half of my inner energy. I put down the long blade and flopped down onto the wooden floor. Only then did Do Gwang-il turn his head and scrutinize me.
"Not bad for the first day. What is your impression of learning all the way to the latter eighteen forms?"
After thinking deeply, I shook my head honestly.
“... I do not know. It is too different from the first eighteen forms.”
“Tsk tsk, is teaching to block and stab like this a supreme secret art? The latter eighteen forms are the aggregation of the sect's martial truth within the frame of saber technique. While learning the first eighteen forms, did you not feel a frustration like being blocked by a wall?”
I came to my senses.
“How do you know that?”
“The Heavenly Steel Saber Technique's first eighteen forms are a vulgarized form of the latter eighteen forms. Since beginners like you, and even those called geniuses, could not understand it no matter how much they were taught, the level was lowered to emphasize practical use. It is like forcefully dressing the truth inherent in the latter eighteen forms with the clothes of forms and hardening it. Like pouring water into a bowl and freezing it.”
Do Gwang-il poured the tea from his cup onto the floor. He held up the empty cup as if to show it and continued speaking.
“The Sword Sect is no different. After learning the Jade Spring Sword Technique, which typified the truth into forms, they advance to the supreme secret art, the Immortal's Leisurely Ten Thousand Swords.”
“Then are the latter eighteen forms and the Immortal's Leisurely Ten Thousand Swords the pinnacle of the Blue Mountain Sect's martial arts?”
Do Gwang-il shook his head. "The sect's true ultimate art is 'Blue Mountain'. It is the essence of the sect created by the second sect leader.
Both the Saber Sect and Sword Sect have their roots there.”
"Did you learn the Blue Mountain Art too, elder?"
“I could not learn it.”
Is it such a high state that even a master of this level could not reach it?
“It was lost. It is not something that can be left as a secret manual, and since no one other than the second sect leader learned it properly, the lineage naturally broke off.”
Do Gwang-il stared at me with sunken eyes.
"Since you have been transmitted up to the latter eighteen forms, you cannot say you are not a successor of the Saber Sect now, right?"
"Let's say that is so.” “Speak properly.” "I understand. I, Jeong Dae-cheon of the Western Village, am the successor of the Blue Mountain Sect's Saber Sect." Do Gwang-il nodded with a slightly satisfied expression. “Since you have become a disciple of the sect, stop calling me 'elder'.” "Then what should I call you? Grand Martial Uncle? Senior Grand Martial Uncle?" “Just call me Sir. I will tell you the direction of future training."
I quickly took off my shoes, went up to the wooden floor, and sat facing Do Gwang-il. Do Gwang-il filled the empty teacup and looked at me with a serious face.
"Polish the first eighteen forms with the truth of the latter eighteen forms as your teacher. Gain enlightenment and draw out the potential of the Heavenly Steel Saber Technique trapped in the forms of the first eighteen forms.” I thought he would guide me in earnest, but he was telling me to figure it out on my own.
I calmly looked back on the latter eighteen forms I had performed without rest for over three hours. I certainly felt the truth of the supreme secret art, but there was nothing I could grasp for sure. The road ahead was still far.
"It does not seem easy." “It is difficult. However, that is the fastest and most certain way.
If you only look for the easy way because the latter eighteen forms are difficult, you are bound to make unreasonable moves like putting a stabbing sword path into a saber technique."
Since I am still young, I might be able to reach the state someday if I train for a lifetime. But I did not have that much time. Within this year, I will infiltrate the Black Night Gang and fight Jeok Chu-yeong.
Even if I defeat Jeok Chu-yeong and achieve my goal, five years later I have to fight this monster-like absolute master in front of me.
“Is the life-and-death duel with you, Sir, still valid?”
I asked just in case, and Do Gwang-il did not hesitate for an inch.
"It is."
"Why on earth do we have to do that life-and-death duel?"
Do Gwang-il remained silent for a moment, then nodded as if convinced.
“You also have the right to know now that you are a respectable successor of the Saber Sect. The life-and-death duel held every five years was originally a desperate measure to reduce killing among disciples.”
“What do you mean? You said it was a tradition before.”
"The beginning was different.” Do Gwang-il fiddled with the empty teacup for no reason.
“The grudge between the Saber Sect and the Sword Sect deepened, and even ambush attacks happened in broad daylight. They became sworn enemies. The sect leader and the masters, unable to watch anymore, agreed to resolve the grudge through a life-and-death duel between just one person from each side every five years.”
No matter how I thought about it, the Blue Mountain Sect was not a normal sect.
"What kind of trouble happened inside the Blue Mountain Sect that led to disciples of the same sect killing each other?"
Do Gwang-il seemed to have truly accepted me as a fellow disciple. He told me the secret history of the school without hiding anything in a calm tone.
“When the mundane world was a living hell due to war, the Blue Mountain was rather peaceful. Since the outside was dangerous, everyone lived huddled in a safe nest. When a new country was established in the outside world, the Blue Mountain was greatly shaken...”
The Remainder faction said men should stay in the mountains because officials cannot be trusted and the martial world is extremely insidious. The Descending faction said let's go down the mountain, formally open the sect, and spread our name. They divided into two sides and confronted each other fiercely.
Coincidentally, those who argued for going down the mountain were mostly those who used sabers. The sect leader, worried that the existence of the Blue Mountain Sect becoming known to the outside would bring disaster, issued a ban on going down the mountain.
The Descending faction disobeyed the order and secretly went down the mountain, but clashed with the swordsmen of the Sword Sect. In the process, several people died, and the saber wielders who escaped the mountain brought external forces into the Blue Mountain as the sect leader feared.
Putting up the cause of avenging the unjustly dead fellow disciples and liberating the oppressed disciples of the Blue Mountain Sect. Revenge bit the tail of revenge and swallowed the disciples. Just a few people who died in the beginning were enough to turn the wheel of resentment.
“How did you come to enter this bloody sect, Sir?”
“My master took me in.”
"Were you an orphan?"
“Both my parents were alive. They were slash-and-burn farmers.”
Do Gwang-il turned his head to the yard. He stared at the darkness beyond the wall and continued speaking.
“My master was... counted as the first among the eccentricity and violence even within the Sword Sect. They say he was originally quiet and timid, but after losing all his brother-like senior and junior disciples to the Saber Sect, he was consumed by hatred and became half-mad.”
Do Gwang-il narrowed his eyes as if gazing into the distance.
“He entered secluded training vowing revenge, but only realized that his talent was lacking. Realizing that mastering the Immortal's Leisurely Ten Thousand Swords was impossible, he roamed the Central Plains looking for a genius from that day on. Then he discovered me in the slash-and-burn farmers' village.”
It is a common occurrence for masters to take talented children as disciples while wandering the martial world. Do Gwang-il was the same case, but there was a very big difference.
“He said I had good bones and martial talent. It was clearly a compliment, but his eyes were so eerie that I was just scared like encountering a wolf. Master said the same thing to my parents and said he would take me and raise me as a warrior. My parents politely refused. Even though they trembled in fear of the martial artist who wore a sword at his waist and smelled of blood, they did not give up their only child.”
Yet, Do Gwang-il eventually became a disciple of the Sword Sect.
“Master must have persuaded them well.”
“Master was not good with words. Instead, his hands were fast. Without saying it twice, he drew his sword and cut my parents' throats. He reached out his hand to me, who was frozen blankly while covered in my parents' blood, and said this.”
'Do you want revenge? I will help you.'